Plaça del Pi — The Pine Tree Square

Plaça del Pi in Barcelona is a historic square dominated by a Gothic basilica featuring a ten-meter rose window, the largest in Catalunya. First documented in 987, the current church was built between 1319 and 1391. The site served as a cemetery until the sixteenth century, while symbolic pine trees have stood since 1568. The adjacent retailers' guild building features Barcelona's oldest sgraffito from the seventeenth century.

Barcelona · from the walk “Stones & Secrets: Hidden Courtyards of the Barri Gòtic” · audio ~3 min · Generated

Plaça del Pi, Barcelona

How large is the rose window on the church in Plaça del Pi in Barcelona?

Look at this cobblestone square... and that lone pine tree standing right in the center. Welcome to Plaça del PI... the Square of the Pine. And believe it or not, Everything here... the square, the church, even the neighborhood... all take their name from a single tree.......... But why would an entire parish be named after a pine?......... Well, according to legend, centuries ago, a fisherman was about to chop down a pine tree to build a boat... when he discovered an image of the Virgin Mary hidden in its branches. He was so shaken that instead of building a boat, he built a chapel. And That chapel eventually became the magnificent Gothic basilica you see before you now.......... The first documented reference to a church on this spot dates back to nine eighty-seven. But the current structure was built between thirteen nineteen and thirteen ninety-one... delayed, like so much in medieval Barcelona, by the Black Death.......... Now, look up at that enormous circular window on the façade. That is the largest rose window in all of Catalunya... ten meters across! But here's what most visitors don't realize... it's Not the original. In nineteen thirty-six, anticlerical militants set fire to the church, destroying the organ just below the window. The heat shattered it completely. The replica you see today was designed by Josep Maria Jujol... the brilliant right-hand man of Antoni Gaudi himself.......... And the ground beneath your feet? Until the sixteenth century, this wasn't a public square at all. It was the church's Cemetery.......... As for the pine tree... the first documented one was planted in fifteen sixty-eight. It grew so tall its crown rose Above the surrounding buildings. Then, during Napoleon's invasion, a French soldier drove his bayonet through its trunk... killing it. Another was planted. Then another. The current pine dates from nineteen eighty-five... the latest in an unbroken chain stretching back over four centuries.......... Before you leave this square, glance at the building on the corner with Carrer Petritxol. That's the former headquarters of Barcelona's retailers' guild, bearing the Oldest Sgraffito decoration in the city, from the seventeenth century. And just inside the church entrance, look for the glass cabinet displaying the Gegants del PI... enormous festival giants whose origins trace back to the sixteenth century, and who still parade through these streets during Catalan celebrations today.

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